DT Air Jordan, a 5-year-old sorrel gelding by Shiners Lena Chex out of Margies Lil Jessie by RC Command, took home top honors in the heading at the first-ever $100,000 added World Championship Rope Horse Futurity in Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 13, 2017. Macho Man Whiz, a 4-year-old bay gelding by Whizlet out of Miss Oklahoma Dunit by Dunit N Stars, took home the heeling title.
JD Yates rode “Jordan,” a gelding raised by Dean Tuftin and owned by Colorado’s Greg Hause, to a cumulative score of 825.03 and a $26,000 payday, which included the go-round win in rounds one and three. Saebens rode “Macho Man” to an overall score of 825.02 and a total purse of $25,500, including a go-round placing and the 4-year-old incentive championship.
“There were some nice horses there from people who don’t show horses that did really well,” Yates said. “It opened both sides of the rodeo and the jackpot world up to understand that they can have a really nice broke horse at a younger age. They can pay somebody to ride them to get them there to go on to do whatever they want to do. This went big and viral, and I think it will be bigger this year.”
Yates had five horses in the top 10 of the heading, while Saebens rode three horses to top-10 finishes on the heel side. The event had 97 head horses and 123 heel horses entered.
“This gives programs like ours a place to showcase our horses,” Saebens said. “We didn’t have to haul all year to get qualified. We could just come and put our money up, and Dixon Flowers Rope Horses won about $43,000 that day alone.”
Stand by for more on these horses and the programs they came from in our December issue.
